Chapter 655: No Such Person

The doorbell rang for a while, but Annie didn't come to open the door. Zhang Yuanqing walked out of the bedroom and opened the security door himself.

Standing outside the door was a seven or eight-year-old boy with big eyes and delicate features, a rather cute boy.

This was the landlord's child.

He held a food container in his right hand and an aluminum can in his left. The can had the words "Tieguanyin" written on it.

"Hello, Uncle!" the little boy said politely.

"It's 'Brother', not 'Uncle'. Say it again," Zhang Yuanqing corrected.

"Hello, Brother!" Zhang Yuanqing appreciated the little boy's pragmatism. He nodded in satisfaction and asked, "What is it?"

The little boy glanced at the food container and said crisply, "Afternoon tea. My mom asked me to bring it over, and some tea."

Zhang Yuanqing stepped aside. "Come in."

He led the little boy inside, took the food container, and placed it on the coffee table. Opening the lid, the double-layered container held a plate of pastries and a plate of dark red glutinous rice balls.

"Tangyuan?"

"No, it's Tang Bu Shuai."

What is Tang Bu Shuai? Zhang Yuanqing took out the pastries and Tang Bu Shuai while asking, "What's your name?"

"My name is Cao Chao, and my English name is Robin," the little boy said.

? Zhang Yuanqing was stunned for a moment before squeezing out a sentence, "Good name. Well, I mean the Chinese name. Who named it?"

"My dad."

"Does your dad like to watch Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"

"How did you know?" Cao Chao's face was filled with surprise.

I also know that your dad must really like Cao Cao. I hope he admires Cao Cao's great talent and strategy, not his preferences... Zhang Yuanqing picked up a "tangyuan" with chopsticks and tasted it, finding it smooth, soft, and fragrant, sweet but not cloying. The sweetness of brown sugar and the aroma of glutinous rice echoed between his taste buds.

Unexpectedly delicious.

He opened the aluminum can and smelled it. The tea fragrance was strong. The quality of the Tieguanyin was quite good.

This should be the landlady's return gift, after all, the new tenant had paid so readily, directly paying half a year's rent plus three months' deposit, a total of 50,000 Federal dollars.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing saw the little boy named "Cao Chao" staring at the expensive snacks in the glass plate, quietly swallowing.

The snacks were bought by Annie in the supermarket.

"Feel free to take some if you want to eat," Zhang Yuanqing said.

"My mom doesn't let me eat snacks, I'll get beaten," Cao Chao shook his head, drooling.

"Oh, then don't eat them," Zhang Yuanqing wasn't one to force others.

"I'm not too afraid of my mom's beatings either," the little boy followed the desire of his heart and grabbed a handful of snacks.

He stood by the coffee table, puffed out his little belly, and concentrated on eating. Zhang Yuanqing took the opportunity to inquire about the landlord's family from the little brat.

Cao Chao's father's name was Cao Qing, from Baotang Province. He immigrated to the Free Federation with his parents when he was a child and ran a small restaurant for a living. After decades of operation by two generations, he now owns six chain restaurants and two snack bars in Chinatown, and is also a big landlord with six apartments.

The landlady's name was Yang Xiujuan. When she married Cao Qing, the family only had two restaurants. In those years, the Chinatown wasn't very safe. They often encountered black people eating without paying, law enforcement officers extorting bribes, and harassment from local Chinese gangs.

The complex and chaotic security environment fostered Yang Xiujuan's extremely irritable temper. She simply couldn't survive without being fierce.

"Every time my dad and mom fight, my dad will scold my mom for being a tigress, and then my mom will beat him. My sister sometimes calls my mom a tigress too, and my mom beats her. Only I never call my mom a tigress, because I'm afraid of getting beaten," Cao Chao sold out his family's information for some snacks.

"But you just said 'tigress' three times," Zhang Yuanqing pointed out sharply.

The little boy's face changed, and the snacks in his mouth instantly lost their flavor.

"I won't tell your mom. Tell me about your sister," Zhang Yuanqing said.

The little boy was immediately relieved, and the snacks in his mouth became delicious again. He chewed on chocolate-covered nuts like a hamster and talked about his sister who liked to fight.

In Cao Chao's eyes, his sister was a complete devil, moody, snatching his snacks and toys, and liked to beat him, and the only reason was that she didn't like him.

Beat your younger brother early, your sister is very aware... Zhang Yuanqing finally understood why this child had such a strong desire to survive at such a young age. With a grumpy mother and a sister who loved to beat people, if his desire to survive wasn't strong enough, he would have died young.

"My sister also has magic, so I don't dare to resist her," Cao Chao said with lingering fear.

"Magic?" Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred, and he deliberately said, "That's all a lie to children."

"No!" The little boy, feeling questioned, furrowed his brow and said loudly, "She showed it to me. She can release electricity, like Pikachu."

As he spoke, he clenched his fists, straining like he was pooping, and roared, "Ten thousand volts!"

Zhang Yuanqing sensed Cao Chao's emotions. He wasn't lying. He was telling the truth.

In other words, that little girl named Cao Qianxi is a Lightning Mage? Uh, no wonder she's irritable and likes to fight. I remember that the characteristic of Lightning Mages is irritability, anger, and justice. Well, relatively fair, so Lightning Mages control the Prosecutor's duties in the Heavenly Restriction... Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts turned, and he asked again:

"When your mom and dad fight, does she release ten thousand volts?"

The little boy shook his head.

Well, generally speaking, the probability of the whole family being The Way of the Extraordinary is extremely small. It's impossible to be so coincidental. Or maybe it is possible. If this family is all The Way of the Extraordinary, then it's easy to understand how they built their fortune... Zhang Yuanqing thought for a while and asked again:

"Are your parents gone from home for a few days every month?"

"How did you know?" the little boy asked in surprise.

This brother is really amazing. Not only does he know that his dad likes to watch Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but he also knows that his parents are often not at home.

He was a little scared, suspecting that the other person also knew about him wetting the bed last night.

Zhang Yuanqing grabbed a handful of snacks and stuffed them into the little boy's pocket. "I just guessed. Don't tell anyone what I said today. If you do, you can come to my house to eat snacks anytime. Go home now. I'll return the container and plates after I'm done eating."

"Okay!" Cao Chao nodded happily and rushed out of the bedroom like a whirlwind.

Watching the little boy leave, Zhang Yuanqing ate two more Tang Bu Shuai before Annie came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a bath towel, with a towel wrapped around her head, a few strands of golden hair falling down, showing a mature and lazy charm.

The bath towel wrapped her heavy breasts, the snowy cleavage deep and bottomless. The hem of the bath towel reached her thighs, her two beautiful legs long and straight, round and even, as white as condensed milk.

"Ah, Leader, what are you eating? Does Annie get some?" The blonde beauty approached happily, looking like she was attracted by the food and had no time to change her clothes.

Zhang Yuanqing handed over the chopsticks.

Annie clumsily used the chopsticks, picked up a "tangyuan" and put it in her small mouth. The sweet and soft taste made her eyes light up:

"What is this?"

"Just think of it as tangyuan."

"What's tangyuan?"

"Never mind, just eat..." Zhang Yuanqing picked up a pastry and started eating. "I just found out that the landlord's family are all The Way of the Extraordinary. Isn't that a coincidence?"

Annie, chewing on the glutinous rice balls, widened her beautiful eyes in surprise, then her face darkened: "They might be people from the authorities, or informants for the authorities, or maybe members of a loose cultivator organization. Should we move?"

Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and shook his head. "No, just pretend we don't know. Let's observe first and try to gain the landlord's family's favor. Maybe we'll need them in the future."

Annie said "Oh" and picked up another Tang Bu Shuai, but she accidentally didn't hold it steady. With a "plop," the ball dropped into the deep valley in front of her chest.

Annie looked at Zhang Yuanqing quickly, feeling wronged. "It, it fell in..."

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the brown sugar staining her white chest and said angrily, "Why are you telling me? Do you want me to help you take it out?"

".......I'll go wash it right away." Annie hurriedly got up and walked towards the bathroom, pouting her lips when her back was to Zhang Yuanqing.

Hmph, she seems to have forgotten that I'm an Illusionist. She deliberately threw the ball into her chest to seduce me. How ridiculous. Am I so easily seduced... Zhang Yuanqing looked at Annie's round buttocks and struggled to look away.

The "perfect figure" and "charm" of the profession of Love Desire are fatally tempting to an adult male, like a mouse seeing rice, a cigarette encountering a match.

..........

Cao Chao returned to room 301 next door empty-handed and howled, "Mom, I'm going to my room. The brother next door said he'll return the bowls when he's done eating."

He dashed towards his room.

The landlady strode after him and grabbed the back of her little son's collar. "What's stuffed in your pockets?"

"Nothing!" Cao Chao hurriedly protected it with his small hands.

"Stuffed so full, does your mother look blind?" The landlady didn't say anything else, leaned down, grabbed her son's ankles, turned him upside down, and shook him.

The chocolates, milk candies, candied fruits, and cookies in his pockets fell out with a clatter.

"The brother insisted on giving them to me. I told him I didn't want them," Cao Chao strongly shirked responsibility in a desperate attempt to survive.

"Pretty rich, huh?" The landlady glanced at the snacks and gathered them up. "Confiscated."

Cao Chao forced a smile. "Okay, Mom can eat them all."

Then he gave his dad, who was enjoying afternoon tea at the dining table, a weak, helpless, and pitiful expression.

Cao Qing was a middle-aged man of average height, slightly overweight, with a small belly, and regular features. At first glance, he looked very calm and dignified, with occasional flashes of shrewdness and slyness in his eyes.

His hairline wasn't high, but his hair was a little sparse. He wore a slicked-back hairstyle popular in the eighties and nineties, and his clothes were also very ordinary, gray pants, a black T-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops. He didn't look like the owner of a chain restaurant at all.

Cao Qing ignored his son's plea for help and said while drinking tea:

"My daughter said the new tenants in 403 are a couple, and the woman is a foreigner? What do you think? Are they reliable? They paid half a year's rent and a three-month deposit all at once. No one's that stupid, right? What if we get tricked and they turn into rent-dodgers after living here for half a year?"

"I'm a better judge of character than you!" The landlady retorted and said, "The little guy graduated from Songhai University, and the foreigner is a foreign language teacher. I think their education is pretty good. How about we let them tutor our daughter? Hiring a tutor is too expensive."

Cao Qing scoffed and shook his head. "Let's wait and see."

.......

The next morning.

Zhang Yuanqing got up to wash and sat at the dining table eating the loving breakfast carefully prepared by Annie: toast, milk, fried eggs, bacon, sausage.

All high-calorie foods.

Zhang Yuanqing actually wanted to eat Xiaolongbao, fried dough sticks, and soy milk, but thinking that Annie had gotten up early to work hard and had put in a lot of effort, he didn't want to pour cold water on her.

After breakfast, Zhang Yuanqing took a taxi to the company where Chen Shu worked.

Chen Shu had worked in a large company in her early years. After accumulating some experience, she resigned, went abroad, found a few partners, and started a foreign trade business, becoming her own boss.

That foreign trade company was in New York Harbor, very close to the Statue of Liberty.

New York Harbor is the largest port in the Free Federation. Half a century ago, the throughput reached hundreds of millions of tons, and in recent years, the cargo volume has continued to break records.

It was New York Harbor and Manhattan's Financial District that made New York County a world-class metropolis.

The two took a ferry across the sea and set foot on the headquarters of the God of the Sea Church—New York Harbor.

Chen Shu's company was called "Lianhua Trading." Zhang Yuanqing and Annie followed the navigation and found the company in an old office building.

The receptionist was a Chinese woman with exquisite makeup but at most pretty looks.

Zhang Yuanqing went straight forward and said in Chinese, "Hello, I'm looking for Chen Shu, the general manager here."

The smile on the receptionist's face had just begun to spread when she heard this and suddenly froze. "I'm sorry, sir, our general manager is not named Chen Shu."

Not named Chen Shu? Zhang Yuanqing frowned. "Then maybe the position has changed. I'm looking for Chen Shu, one of the shareholders of your company. Can you help me check?"

The receptionist shook her head. "I'm very sorry, if you know the shareholders of our company, you can call her to notify her..."

Before she could finish speaking, Zhang Yuanqing said impatiently, "Check for me!"

His dark brown pupils became transparent, and his words seemed to contain the magic of making people obey.

The receptionist felt fear and obedience and stammered, "You, you wait a moment..."

She leaned over and typed on the keyboard. After a moment, she raised her head, her expression fearful and helpless:

"I'm sorry, our company doesn't have this person."

There's no such person. My fists are getting hard... Zhang Yuanqing gritted his teeth and thought that he was really blinded by lard to have believed Chen Shu. That old woman didn't say a word of truth.

The two had no choice but to return the way they had come. On the ferry, Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice:

"Annie, when you were Mr. Beale's assistant, did you ever see my mom?"

Mr. Beale and Annie knew his real name and even knew that Chen Shu was his mom.

Annie shook her head. "I served Mr. Beale at the end of last year. He's a good boss, not interested in women. I just need to do my job well."

Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath. "Call Mr. Beale and ask... Never mind, don't ask. Beale and my mom are partners. They're in the same gang."

He had to observe Chen Shu secretly.

This time in New York County, he would definitely make that riddle-solving mom take off her disguise and reveal her true colors.

After taking the ferry back to Manhattan, Zhang Yuanqing went to "Rainbow Bank" and deposited 500,000 Federal dollars into the bank card issued by the Hunter Guild.

Then he opened the Bounty Hunter app, entered the background, and selected a bounty mission:

#Summary of the Devil Monarch's Lovers in the Free Federation#

Mission details: The buyer hopes to provide basic information about the Devil Monarch's lovers, including but not limited to family background, position, organization, rank, photos, and detailed stories of their relationships with the Devil Monarch.

Bounty hunters need to be assessed, have points, and have a rank to take on missions, but there are no restrictions on bounty missions. These days, clients who send money are always gods, and who would set a threshold for gods?

Zhang Yuanqing's other purpose in coming to the Free Federation was to find the Devil Monarch's beloved lovers and collect map fragments.

He hoped that the Devil Monarch's lovers didn't include that Heavenly Restriction Chief Executive Officer, otherwise he would have to give up collecting fragments and kneel down to the Devil Monarch, sincerely shouting: 666.

Zhang Yuanqing prayed in his heart.

The two took a taxi back to Chinatown. Annie was craving roadside snacks and dragged Zhang Yuanqing to buy a basket of soup dumplings.

On the way home, they happened to see the landlord's youngest son, Cao Chao, playing with a basketball on the side of the road.

Just then, the roar of an engine came, and four motorcycles sped through the crowded street. One of the motorcycles approached Cao Chao purposefully, suddenly slowed down, and the rider on the motorcycle kicked the little boy to the ground.

The riders laughed and quickly rode away.

The basketball rolled and rolled, rolling to the center of the road.

Cao Chao was anxious and quickly got up to pick it up.

Zhang Yuanqing frowned. He sensed that the rider had done it on purpose, and his emotions were mixed with revenge, pleasure, and naked malice.

"Beep beep~" A black sedan sped past, and the sudden appearance of the child caught the driver off guard, who honked the horn frantically.

Cao Chao trembled and was paralyzed in place.

In the distance, in front of a snack stall, a long-haired girl screamed, "Cao Chao, come back..."

She dropped the food in her hand and rushed up like a madman, but she was too far away to save him.

Just as she was despairing, she suddenly saw a figure flash past, snatching Cao Chao before the black sedan and quickly retreating.

The speeding car brushed past him.

........

ps: Update first and correct typos later.